Ruby Roundup 1

Julie Torres

July 15, 2015

Our bi-weekly roundup of all things ruby! Well, just five things. Whether you're a ruby newbie or a more experienced rubyist, there's a great resource here for you. And if you've got a suggestion to include in a future roundup, post them here.

Learn to Program, by Chris Pine - This free online book is a classic! If you’ve never touched code, it will teach you all the basics of Ruby, with no expectation of prior knowledge. Even if you have some coding experience, the explanations are so clear and straight-forward that it’s still worth reading.

Learn Ruby the Hard Way - This is the book that taught me to code. What I love is that it doesn’t feed you the answers--it gives you the questions and a few hints to point you in the right direction, but you have to use your Google skills to solve the problems. Working as a developer is all about research and attention to detail. This book helps you build good developer habits from day one. It’s a valuable resource for both beginner and Intermediate developers.

Camping.io MicroFramework - When you’re ready to use your Ruby skills to build web apps, you’ll face the crucial question: “Which web framework should I use?” The decision usually comes down to Rails or Sinatra, since those are the best-known frameworks. But if you’re new to web development, I recommend keeping it simple with the lesser-known Camping.io framework. Where Rails uses 10+ directories full of files to make a simple app, Camping would use just one file. Best of all, they provide detailed documentation online in The Camping Book.

Mastering Ruby Blocks - This blog post gives an excellent synopsis of how to use Ruby blocks, complete with plenty of code samples. Although I disagree with the author’s claim that you can master Ruby Blocks in less than 5 minutes, it is a concise explanation of a very complex topic.

Effective Debugging in Ruby - This video, by Jonathan Wallace of Big Nerd Ranch, addresses one of the biggest stumbling blocks for new developers: debugging existing code. The video is 30 minutes long, and is a must-watch for anyone who will be building complex applications or working with other people’s Ruby code.